Drenched

How to spell drenched

8 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce drenched

What does drenched mean?

1. adjectiveThoroughly wet or soaked, as if covered or filled with liquid.
2. verbPast tense of drench: soaked something thoroughly with liquid.

Drenched in a sentence

• adjective

  The runners were drenched in sweat by the end of the marathon.

• verb

  A burst pipe drenched the entire kitchen floor in minutes.

• adjective

  She arrived at the office drenched after the sudden downpour.

• verb

  The storm drenched every garden on the street.

Where does drenched come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word goes back to the Old English verb drencan, which meant 'to give drink to' or 'to drown', and was the causative partner of drincan, the ancestor of our modern 'drink'. In its earliest use it literally meant to make something or someone take in liquid, sometimes by force, which is why it carried the sense of drowning or soaking through. Over the centuries the harsher idea of drowning faded and the word settled into its familiar meaning of being thoroughly wet or saturated. The past form 'drenched' adds the regular -ed ending, and the silent link to 'drink' explains the otherwise tricky 'dr' opening. Because it shares Germanic roots with words like 'drink' and 'drown', the family resemblance is a useful memory hook for the spelling.

How the word is built

• drench (from Old English drencan: to soak, make drink)
• -ed (past tense/participle suffix)